A few minutes ago, I ran into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was walking the empty marble halls of the Capitol with just her security detail in tow. We exchanged pleasantries, and I followed her for a minute or two; she was on her way to her office, and I was making my way to the Boehner press conference.
As we turned the corner, we both came upon the pack of reporters camped beside the Will Rogers statue adjacent to Statuary Hall, the two-story room south of the Rotunda. Pelosi, in a grape-purple suit, glided between reporters, mostly unnoticed. Most odd was that no one jumped up to ask her questions, or chase her to her door.
Pelosi quickly moved past the kleig lights and behind them, and brushed shoulders with rookie reporters and photographers. She then passed the statues of great Americans cast in marble, and waved to a few surprised tourists, before reaching her soon-to-be-vacated suite. To her credit, she was low key.
Ten months ago, in March, Pelosi roamed this same hall as Queen of the House — The Speaker Who Passed Health Care — and any glimpse of her would make the Hill press corps leap for their pen and pads. No more. Instead, reporters are battling each other to hear the man who pledges repeal.
The brief episode struck me: Pelosi may still be speaker, but the pulse of power no longer lingers. Reporters give her a smile back, but that’s about it. Politics, as ever, moves forward.
This what makes our country so strong. It is about policy and laws, not individual leaders. The Tea Party Movement is all about getting the country to be the focus, not the legislators and administrators.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI've always wanted her to just go away. I didn't expect that she'd turn invisible.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYears ago, I read an article somewhere in which the writer describes seeing Jim Wright at an official function here in Austin, shortly after he lost the Speakership... alone and ignored, he couldn't even get a ride home from the gathering.
Power is fleeting, and fame is fickle. Boehner should remember this, and make hay while the sun shines.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBoy I disagree with the first few comments. God forbid Boehner should "make hay while the sun shines." That's exactly what Pelosi did: she apparently was willing to trade a short time in the sun, in power, for lasting "accomplishment" in the form of Obamacare. Yuk. It will be years undoing that damage.
Give me a man who wants his achievements while in power to be so widely approved and durably popular that even when he is long out of power he is still magnetically attractive, someone whom those still in power come to for advice and comment, or just to seek benediction.
The fact that Pelosi was *only* of interest while she inhabited the Speaker's post is a damning statement about her. It says she, the woman, brought almost no lasting qualities of character to the job. Men like Washington, Lincoln and Reagan brought so much of themselves to the job that they gave a faint sheen forever after to the job. Future Presidents could say "I am sitting in Lincoln's chair!"
It's a sad commentary that no one is ever likely to say, on being elected Speaker in the future, "Golly! I am sitting in Nancy Pelosi's chair!"
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIn one sense, I imagine Pelosi is feeling relief. Now she merely has to connive her way into retaining her leadership in the minority.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWell, you sure notice Bob. Man, you are such a rookie.
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